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AboPass
The expression "going
through Abo Pass" is a better description
than "going over Abo Pass". It's really a
gap rather than a pass. But only the
railroad goes through the gap, while the
modern road climbs a shallow shoulder above
the gap to the south. The situation is made
more confusing by the fact that going down
the eastern approach of the road from the
"summit" is only a 300 ft drop before the
road starts climbing again. In an effort to
locate a true summit on the road the profile
continues east onto a slanted high plain to
a high point in the town of Mountain Air.
Even then the western approach descends only
450 feet. Abo Pass is not labeled on
topographic maps. But the name appears on
many Gazetteer and highway maps.
Approaches From East. Two arrow straight
roads climb along a shallow alluvial plains
from the Rio Grande to converge shortly before
the real climb to the top. The profile shows
the route from Belen which has all services.
The road is designated as bicycle route and
has a good shoulder. The town at the end of
the other road, Bernardo, has a gas station at
the most. Another straight line converges at
the junction of the two roads, and that is the
ragged fault line profile of the Manzano
Mountains. Shortly before the junction the
railroad crosses to the north side. The tracks
enter a scenic gap, named Abo Canyon. The BNSF
railroad is currently engaged in an effort to
plan a second track through the rocky canyon.
From the junction it's a short but definitely
noticeable climb to the intermediate top.
After a short drop the road crosses the rails
again at a historical marker commemorating the
Abo Pass Trail. The road begins to climb again
very gradually between ravines. The old
missionary and pueblo ruins of Abo are 3/4
miles off the main road. When reaching the
highest point just short of the town of
Mountain Air and turning back it becomes clear
from the expansive view of the Manazano Range
the different character of the land on this
side of the mountains becomes clear. From the
east the Manzanos gently rise to a forested
dip slope. The entire route has a wide
shoulder, although its condition deteriorates
as you approach the town of Mountain View
(Nov.07).
From West. It's hard to call this an
approach. But if Abo Pass carries the
destination pass, (even though it is really a
gap), this has to be called an approach. Even
the slope sensitve railroad does not need an
elaborate constructions to make the simple 400
ft climb from Willard. The ride is reminiscent
of a ride on the expansive mid western plains,
in that the destination high point can be seen
from anywhere in a 20 mile radius. The point
of highest elevation is actually the water
tower in the town of Mountain Air. It seems to
never come any closer until you finally reach
it. The shoulder on this side is rumble
stripped, and the ridable part is narrower
than on the other side, but still sufficient
to stay out of traffic for the most part.
Dayrides. An out and back ride between Mountain Air and
Belen over the pass twice measured 67 miles
with 2300ft of climbing in 4:3 hours. The
figures do not include 15 miles between the
road junction described in the eastern
approach to Belen in the west to east
direction, because I accepted a car transport
due to mechanical problems (7/11/20). History Native People. The Salinas Valley on the east side of the pass had been inhabited by natives for centuries before the Spanish brought back word of it. These pit house dwellers were assimilated by the Anasazi beginning in the 1100s, when they started building more in the style of multi story adobe apartment buidlings. One of these villages, Abo, is 3/4 mile off the pass road. The others Gran Quivira, Quarai and a few undeveloped sites located on private land, are even closer to the salt deposits in the Salinas Valley. By the 17th century the Salinas valley was inhabited by perhaps 10000 or more pueblo dwellers, who crossed the pass area, acting as traders and producers for the Rio Grande villages and the nomadic plains indians.
58 years before a brief, initial encounter
between Spaniards and the pueblo Indians of
nearby Gran Quivira Indians caused the
conquistadors to go on a Golden Goose chase
all the way to Kansas.. Now the Spaniards
returned for a second time. The main
attractions this time were salt in the Salinas
Valley and agriculture, but these too, did
never really turn out to be profitable. Still,
wagon loads of salt and agricultural goods
produced in the pueblos, crossed the pass to
the Camino Real along the Rio Grande, and
returned with missionary goods to the pueblos.
In the end the reason for the Spnaish to to
remain was because the pope said so.
Franciscands introduced wheat bread, fruit
trees as well as exploitation through forced
tributes. Another new item introduced by the Spaniards
were "new diseases", at least new to the
Indians. The second, "new and improved" church
had been in service only for a couple of
decades, when the final chapter began. A
drought and souring relations with the apaches
to the east, stopped catholic hymns
reverberating in the new church. During the
1670s Salinas valley pueblo dwellers moved
across the pass and were absorbed by other
villages along the Rio Grande. The village of
Abo was one of the last hold outs, already
absorbing inhabitants of the lower Salinas
Valley before they had to move again, this
time all the way down the pass to the Rio
Grande pueblos. This was 10 years before
pueblos on the upper Rio Grande revolted
against Spanish rule on a large scale and
managed to expell them for a number of years. Railroads. The pass was crossed by
the Sante Fe railroad in 1908, when they
completed the Belen cutoff. Today the railroad
is attempting to convert the extremely busy
single track line into double tracks. back
to New Mexico's summits and passes by
bicycle  |
Tours
Spanish Colonialism. Then
came the Spaniards, and in the words of the
National Monument ranger I talked to - ruined
everything. The majority of ruins at Abo were
left by the Spaniards, but these buildings
also had the shortest useful lifespan,
becoming instant relics so to speak, and
bearing testament to how fast they were
ruined.